Some short comments about all this... > I'm concerned no one replied already, but well... > My brain is slow, and needs time to formalize thoughts :)
Shortly summarized (so that those who do not like to read a lot don't need to): I am not convinced at all that you can isolate the combat system from the rest of the gaming system. I'm also not convinced that tweaking the current system a bit can provide a very good answer to the current issues perceived by players. Now, for the less impatient ones, I'll provide a little more details on why I think so. First, there is a problem of content. All the current maps were designed with the base idea that "combats are fast and furious" in mind. It means large rooms full of monsters in which the player runs and "harvest". Slowing down combat would dramatically change this, and involve the complete redesign of most - if not all - maps in which combat happens. This is probably the most important issue in making combat pace changes, especially given that there are not a lot of map-makers out there. Second, there is the problem of other combat skills - basically, spells. Those were too designed with the idea of large-scale battles, with a single players fighting lots of monsters at the same time. Cone spells, as well as the "explosive" spells (like fireball) were obviously made with the idea of damaging a lot of opponents in a single cast. If the combat pace is slowed down, then it means the player will, on average, face less monsters at a given time, and thus this will reduce the effectiveness of those combat spells. The result will be that magic will get harder to use - and given that it *already* is hard (try to play a spellcaster in the context of a permadeath server if you don't believe it ! :) ), it would ultimately mean changes in the magic system as well. Third, archetypes will need massive changes - if the combat pace changes, so does the game balance; and thus, the monsters and weapons characteristics. Although some of such adaptations can be performed automatically by scripts, I believe that "handwriting" will also be required to balance the result in an appropriate way. Finally, the whole mechanism of combat needs to be rethought, and not only its pace, IMHO. Currently, melee combat is nothing more than "run into a monster". There is no combat visuals, little tactics, and no real variations between "melee techniques" - whatever the weapon or the melee skill used, it is just a matter of "running into monsters". As a fighter, I'd like to have to choose between various techniques, to have special hits, or simply to enjoy seeing my character swinging its poleaxe all around orcs :). Overall, I tend to agree with Kevin R. Bulgrien's point of view: I don't think designing things piece by piece is a good idea. But given that the boss already expressed lack of interest on that point, I'll not extend furthermore on this. Just my 2 eurocents. (Now, Ryo, you have one more reply - and before the rewrite was finished. :) ) _______________________________________________ crossfire mailing list crossfire@metalforge.org http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire